


The Bet

by potentiality_26



Category: Mr. Lucky (TV)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-06
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-02-03 08:50:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1738571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/potentiality_26/pseuds/potentiality_26
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>“All right,” Andamo said, with that look of his that managed to be both suspicious and trusting at once- the one he usually reserved for when Lucky had some scheme up his sleeve that he didn’t understand but was willing to believe would work. It was strange to see it now, when Lucky himself was quite sure that this was going to end badly.</em>
</p><p>It's the worst wager Lucky's ever made- or possibly the best, depending on what comes next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Bet

**Author's Note:**

> Ever notice how Maggie only seems to exist when the story requires it? Today, as it happens, the story doesn't require it.

It wasn’t their best evening ever.

There had been an incident with a newly hired busboy, and a husband and wife from out of state were leaving talking about a lawsuit. Lucky hadn’t paid a lot of attention to them, truth be told- there were some people who were just never happy and there wasn’t a lot he could do about it; he was confident it would come to nothing it the end. Andamo saw the launch off with a big smile, griping all the while under his breath about how this was going to be when their luck ran out.    

“Don’t worry about it,” Lucky told him, knowing even as he did so that his friend worried about most things, and being told not to tended to only arouse his suspicions further. There were times when telling Andamo not to worry was a little like telling him not to breathe.    

“Yeah?” Andamo asked, grumpily. “I give you ten to one we end up having to pay.”

Momentarily entranced by the sharp contrast cut by his friend’s slender, white-clad shoulders against the night sky, Lucky found that the expected answer caught in his throat. “How about another stake?” he asked instead, and swore inwardly. He wasn’t used to having so little control of himself, but it seemed to be happening more and more lately.  

Andamo snorted. “I don’t know why I bother,” he said. “It’s not like you ever lose.” He kicked lightly at the railing. “All right,” he said. “What?”

“A kiss,” was out of Lucky’s mouth before he had time to think better of it.

Andamo’s forehead crinkled adorably. When they first met, his command of English had been relatively hit or miss, though undeniably better than some Americans of Lucky’s acquaintance. His determination to work out the meaning of terms and his general quickness of wit had prevailed- it had been a long time since Lucky had seen the look Andamo wore when he was trying to figure out where he’d gotten lost. He’d forgotten what it did to him. “A kiss? With who?”

What it did to him, apparently, was make him abandon his good sense. “You. If I’m right, I get to kiss you.”

Though he was still looking at Lucky like he was speaking some kind of unknown language, Andamo finally nodded. “All right,” he said, with that look of his that managed to be both suspicious and trusting at once- the one he usually reserved for when Lucky had some scheme up his sleeve that he didn’t understand but was willing to believe would work. It was strange to see it now, when Lucky himself was quite sure that this was going to end badly.

*   *   *

It was a relatively quiet few weeks after that, which gave Lucky plenty of time to think about what he’d gotten himself into.

Lucky had known gamblers in his time that couldn’t go a week- couldn’t go a day, sometimes- without getting the very particular rush of putting something valuable on the line in the hopes of getting something even better back. Any gambler sought that feeling to an extent- he’d get out of the game, otherwise- but Lucky knew what a slippery slope it could be. It ended in dangerous escalation, in risking everything that mattered on blind chance. Frankly, he thought that was the only explanation for the situation he was in now.  

He got a strange feeling in his fingertips sometimes, a little like an electric shock. Whenever he did, he got restless, pacing across the room. It was an easy enough fix, or at least it used to be. It used to be he’d go out with- say- one thousand and come back with five and that would be that. But there were some things his luck didn’t extend to, and he sometimes thought that Andamo was one of those things. In fact, he was fairly certain that falling in love with a man who only saw him purely as a friend and staying that way for years constituted a rut to the eye of the average person. At the very least, the average person might be willing to lay odds that Lucky was becoming significantly less so if this was the kind of turn his life was taking. Everyone lost sometimes, of course- but this was a pretty heavy loss.

And as for this particular bet… Lucky had regretted it from the moment he made it. There was no rush to a sure thing, any gambler knew that- but Lucky was only just starting to realize that he’d never put anything on the line that he really cared about. Money came and went- mostly the former, in his case, but he’d worked his way up from nothing before and as long as he had one good suit he’d do it again- but losing his best friend was something else entirely.

Which was why, at the end of the week, when it looked as though things had indeed blown over without incident and Andamo hinted somewhat obliquely that Lucky had won the bet, he didn’t feel very much like a winner. Still, it was late at night and Andamo was hanging back in Lucky’s office when he could very easily have retreated to his room without mentioning it- and that was something.

It was _something_ \- but it wasn’t much. Andamo’s face was unusually difficult to read as he stood there, and it made Lucky want to give him a little peck on the cheek, pass the whole business off as one of his odder quirks, and be done with it.

In fact, that was entirely his intention as he bent toward the smaller man- so Lucky was as alarmed as Andamo undoubtedly was when his mouth sealed clumsily and imperfectly over his friend’s full lower lip.

He found it smooth and firm, but with just enough give, and heard a soft sound that- after a moment- he realized was him, groaning. It was the only warning whatever demon had taken charge of his body chose to give before going utterly mad. His head tilted a little to the side, fitting their mouths together properly. Andamo’s lips were parted, likely with surprise, and Lucky used the opportunity to press his tongue inside. This was almost certainly his only chance to taste his partner- his only chance to do a lot of things. He couldn’t waste it, not when he’d already foolishly come this far. He was as good as all in.

When he thought about it, there was entirely too much he wanted to do and never, never enough time to do it all. Not in one kiss. Not in a thousand.

He lifted a shaking hand and dragged his knuckles over Andamo’s jaw. The younger man tasted of tobacco and the brandy he’d been drinking earlier and when he twined his fingers into that curly black hair it was exactly as soft as he’d imagined it would be. Andamo’s hands were trapped between their chests, not actively pushing him away- it was the closest to being kissed back he could reasonably hope for, and he didn’t know if he could have stopped for anything less. He wrapped his arms around Andamo’s back, hands finding his shoulder blades through his jacket.

It was the simple need for oxygen that finally made him pull away- otherwise he probably never would have done it.

Suddenly uncertain how to even look at his friend now, Lucky kept his eyes closed and bent his head, forehead pressing against the other man’s. He was breathing hard and he could hear Andamo doing the same.

“Are-” Andamo began, and then paused to consider his words while Lucky considered all the worst possible ways that sentence could end. “Are you all right?”

It took Lucky a moment to work out what Andamo was asking- their faces were close enough that when Andamo spoke he could feel it- and even longer to process the meaning behind it. He laughed bitterly. “That depends.”

“On?”

“Whether I can ever do that again.” Lucky cringed inwardly. He hadn’t meant it to sound like an ultimatum- the last thing he wanted was for Andamo to feel trapped, but he almost certainly already did, and not just emotionally. He was backed up against Lucky’s desk, and Lucky knew perfectly well that his arms were wrapped around him far too tight.

He wanted to run like hell from the slender body pressed up against his own. He wanted to crush it even closer and never let go.

Slowly, he began to disentangle himself.

Andamo’s fingers curled into fists around his jacket. “Don’t-” he started, then growled, another relic of time Lucky had thought long past when Andamo was unable to find the words for what he wanted to say. “Stay.”

Lucky froze. Andamo’s back was stiff under his hands, but suddenly Lucky did want to look at him.

Getting leverage against his desk, Lucky lifted his partner up to sit on it above him. Though he couldn’t have explained why, he found the idea of looking up at Andamo in that moment comforting.

And what a sight he was- dark curls tumbling over his forehead, cheeks flushed, mouth red and faintly swollen. Andamo lifted a hand from where it was cradled against Lucky’s chest to cup his cheek, thumb brushing across his lower lip, which felt suddenly oversensitive.

He tried to speak, but the lightest touch of that thumb stopped him cold. Ever if it hadn’t, the look on his friend’s face would have done so just as well.

There was puzzlement and surprise and curiosity there- but something astonishingly like awe, too. That look made him feel a million things all at once- especially when it occurred to him that Andamo was searching his face for something.

Whatever it was, Andamo seemed to find it, because his muscles relaxed and his face settled into an expression infinitely more familiar. He said, “I think I have a bet that I will win.”

“What’s that?” Lucky asked, frozen. He was realizing how similar fear and hope could feel, close enough to be indistinguishable, both capable of making a man feel so brittle it was like if he moved an inch in any direction pieces of him would go flying all over the room.

“You aren’t going to leave this room for a long time.”

Lucky swallowed. “What do you bet?”

“A kiss. I get to kiss you.” And he did, his fingers twining into Lucky’s hair in an infinitely less urgent parallel of Lucky’s movements before.

And Lucky had never been so happy to lose.


End file.
